海の物語 Sea Story
by Teh Pocky Ninja
Summary: When your best friend saves you from drowning, it's usually a life-changing experience. Even more so when you wake up the next day with gills on your neck and a scaly tail where your legs used to be. AU SasuSaku and NaruHina. -Redone out of love!-
1. Beach Music

**Sea Story **

**海の物語**

**Chapter One: Beach Music**

* * *

"Here she comes…"

"Don't make eye contact…"

"Mommy!"

His head jerked up at the muffled commotion from the people in the streets outside his store. So it was _her_ again.

"She'll curse you soon as look at you, don't get too close…"

He sighed to himself, glimpsing only a flash of that infamous hair before it vanished into the crowded marketplace a few buildings down from where he was sitting. Whenever she was around, everyone always got all superstitious…

"There she goes, the little demon. Why we let her stay, I'll never know…"

His neck cracked from stiffness as he yawned, stretching before getting up from the rickety chair outside the only building he had to his name.

"She's no less of a demon that your own mothers," he scoffed to the gossiping women, disappearing indoors before he could catch their mutters of his insolence.

* * *

Konoha. Nothing more than a sleepy little fishing village, its inhabitants consisting of fishers, traders and the occasional musician or monk. Owning one of two fishhook shops, Uchiha Sasuke worked alone and had few good friends. People in Konoha had basic control of elemental magic, or "Chakra," as some called it, giving most of them a small power over a substance. Sasuke's power over fire was inherited from his father, allowing him to follow in the glorious family business of smithing hooks for fisher's lines. It was a simple job that paid well, though the quiet boy sometimes dreamed of other things.

"Sasuke! Hey, Sasuke!"

He put down the twisted piece of metal he had been holding, raising an eyebrow as his best friend of seventeen years tramped through his doorway, sopping wet and grinning like the lovable moron he was.

"You'll never guess what happened!" chirped the blond in his high-pitched squeak. Sasuke was not the only one who wondered when the gods would be merciful and let the poor boy's voice crack after five years of puberty.

"Shikamaru caught another kappa?" he murmured detachedly, returning to his malformed blob of iron. Konoha _had_ been visited by the occasional sea monster, all fishing towns had, but an old, cucumber-addicted turtle-monkey had lost is novelty the first eight times one washed up on their shores.

"Nah," Naruto shook his blond head, dispelling drops of saltwater. "It's Kakashi."

" Kakashi? What about him?" asked Sasuke, referring to the ever-masked man that had first taught little Naruto how to cast nets. The boy had been orphaned from the start, his mother dying in childbirth and his father while helping fight off a vicious sea serpent. Kakashi was the only one who had bothered to look after the boy, teaching him to fish so he wouldn't starve. One could almost say the silver-haired man had adopted the spunky blonde as his own.

"He just broke the record!"

This time Sasuke was interested. "The mussel record?"

"The very one! Completely shattered it! Someone even said he might have doubled the last number!"

Sasuke closed his eyes. That old guy was always full of surprises. First he called lightning down from the sky during storms, and now this.

"Wanna go see?"

"Can't," he answered.

"Oh, that's right," the blond boy chuckled, the whisker-like marks on his cheeks stretching as he grinned. "You're going to go see your _girlfriend_."

"Dobe, for the millionth time, she isn't my girlfriend."

"But you _like_ her."

"If I did, wouldn't I have offered to let her move in with me?"

Naruto sulked, unable to defy that logic. "But you still like her."

"As an acquaintance, yes. I do."

"Man, teme! You're colder than an iceberg, you know that?"

He merely smirked. Stupid Naruto. All was right in the world.

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke worked alone. As clichéd as it sounded, he took no help from anyone else, and made his own niche in their salty little village. And as much as he hated it, people were inclined to pity him, all alone for so long in his life. It wasn't _his_ fault his older brother had gone ballistic at the age of thirteen, stabbing their parents to death before a grisly hanging suicide. The other townspeople worried about him, but he was just fine on his own.

Even so, he couldn't ignore the whisperings of the old housewives as he stepped briskly down the stony path leading to the beach, in the direction of a small, run-down shed perched on a rocky hill not too far from the frothy water.

"Look at that, there he goes again…taking things to that witch-girl…"

"She'll be spiriting him away and drowning him, mark my words."

He merely rolled his eyes and continued on his way.

The girl in question was the one most of the town made up wild rumors about, from her being a devil come to sink the village in a watery grave to the ghost of a drowned child risen to seek vengeance. All were complete nonsense.

Having arrived at the rickety shed, he reached up and rapped four times on the wormy wood of the door. A few scuffling noises later, it opened inwardly.

A single, moss-green eye peered out at him, squinting before the door was opened further to reveal a smiling girl's face.

"Sasuke," she exclaimed happily, "Please, don't stay out there, come in."

He nodded, ducking to stoop under the low door before standing up again inside the shed. Contrary to the outside appearance, the inside was quite clean and rather cozy. A bundle of straw in one corner with some blankets draped across it served as a simple bed, while a table and chair sat at the other end, several papers and a reed pen in an ink bottle sitting atop the rough tabletop.

"Writing again, Sakura?" he asked, glancing at the papers. She nodded in response, resting a hand on the sheets.

"I got a whole chapter done last night," she said in her upbeat tone. "If you like…I could read it to you."

"Some other time?" he offered, "I have things to do tonight."

"Ok…" she murmured, obviously disappointed. One of the few people in the village able to read and write, she had always delighted with reading her unfinished book aloud to him. The plot consisted of a young couple torn apart by a war between their neighboring islands, and all the hardships they went through to finally be together.

"Here, I brought this to show you."

She looked up at him, being a head shorter, as he fumbled around in the pocket of his black pants before retrieving something small and made of dull metal.

"Oh, Sasuke," she whispered, her eyes shining, "It's perfect!"

He smirked proudly, "I knew you'd think so. It's the best clutch I've ever made. Got it done just this morning."

"It's beautiful," she said, smiling as he twisted the spiked piece of metal in his fingers. "You're amazing, Sasuke. Are you going to keep it?"

"Nah," he shook his head of raven-colored spikes. "Asuma ordered a whole batch this afternoon, it'd be better used in his hands than sitting on a shelf."

"I…I guess so…" she agreed, "But it's still great, Sasuke. Good job."

He set the pebble-sized hook down on the table, turning back as she twisted a lock of her famous pastel-pink hair around her finger, her cheeks a faint shade of red. Though they were the best of friends, he tended to make her blush even if they had known each other since she moved into this little shack. She always dismissed it as his being pretty, to which he always scowled and muttered that pretty was for girls.

"Are you coming to the festival?" he asked casually. "It's next weekend, after all."

"I…I don't know…" she murmured, closing her jade-colored eyes. "I don't think so…I mean, I'll just…"

"You should come," he stated bluntly. "Who cares what anybody else says?"

Her face went redder as she nodded. "I'll do my best…"

"I'll look forward to seeing you," he said, turning back around to the little shed exit. "Sorry, but I need to go close up shop."

"Oh…ok…" she said, returning his wave as the door closed. "Bye-bye, Sasuke…"

* * *

The sun was setting as he stepped back outside, the orange and pink light casting a rosy hue on the graying rows of buildings that formed his home. He glanced toward the town's only pier, toward the little building sitting just within the town's boundaries where his best friend was probably stuffing his face with dinner…

Wandering through the emptying streets, he glanced back at the sun, that great ball of fire in the sky looking about to sink into the ocean below it, before reaching for his keys.

Locking the door behind him, he turned around to face the interior of what had once been his father's store for the town's fishers. Shelves upon shelves of lures, bait and metal fishhooks lined the walls, a pile of unwrapped lines for rods sitting complacently on the only chair behind the store's desk.

_The best way to make money is to find out what people want, and give it to them._

"Heh," he mumbled to himself, trudging toward the stairs in the back that led up to the attic. "You always were quite the salesman, Dad…"

Only able to afford keeping one building on his single income, he lived in the shop's attic amongst old crates and creaking wood. No cobwebs or dustballs at all, because Uchiha Sasuke liked his cleanliness.

He exhaled loudly, collapsing onto his bed, made of cow hides sewn together and stuffed with bird feathers. His father had purchased it when his brother had been born, as the first male heir he deserved everything…

Sighing, he told himself there'd be time for rest later, the sun was almost down. He dragged himself back up, reaching for a crate of leather bags and a nearby bottom shelf at the same time. Asuma had ordered twenty-five of his deep-sea clutches…he and his team of apprentices were probably going crab fishing…

His fingers, roughened from years of blowing fire over the tips, plucked each individual fishhook from the shelf and dropped it in the leather drawstring bag, ready to be picked up and delivered first thing tomorrow.

His fingers paused in midair.

_Twenty…four?_

All of a sudden, he remembered the little piece of metal he had taken to show…

He cursed out loud, heaving himself to his feet. There was no time to light a fire now, he'd have to go get it from Sakura's shed. She wouldn't mind, she was a night owl. Probably up writing her book by candlelight right now…

Careful to lock the front door of the little shop, he hustled quickly through the empty streets, the light from many candles indoors illuminating the cobblestones with a dim, flickering glow.

_Oh please oh please oh please be there…_ he mumbled to himself in his mind. He rarely spoke his thoughts out loud, adding to his reserved nature.

"Pssst," he whispered once he reached the little shed. "Sakura. Are you awake?"

No answer. And no light glimmered between the cracks in the wood, meaning she was probably asleep. He tapped four times on the door, to let her know it was him. "Sakura?"

He flinched as the door swung open of its own accord, its hinges squeaking loudly. Luckily, the light from the stars overhead shone into the gloom, shining off a single polished edge of dull, gray iron.

Without a sound, he swiftly reached in and swiped the fishhook, sighing in relief.

"Goodnight, Sakura," he whispered into the darkened corner where she would be sleeping, before carefully closing the door again.

He smiled to himself as he carefully made his way back up toward the wind-battered village. Now he could go back home and get some well-deserved sleep…

_Sploosh_.

He stopped walking, turning around in confusion at the sound of a rather large splash. The ocean remained as dark as ever under the night sky. He shrugged to himself and was going to turn back around and go home, when…

A head bobbed up several meters out from the dock, where the jumping into the ocean had obviously taken place. It was a human head, and he'd be crazy not to miss that flowing, coral-colored hair.

…_Sakura?_

He watched in puzzlement as the girl's head nodded along with the waves, swimming further out from the pier without so much as a sound.

_What's she doing out here…? Well, it IS summer…and the water's pretty warm…she's just taking a swim, that's all._

He watched as she took that momentary bounce upwards to inhale, before plunging headfirst into the dark water, her feet kicking in the air before following the rest of her below the surface.

_She's not a bad swimmer,_ he thought, trying to place where she'd emerge again.

The seconds ticked by. His heart began to pump in his chest when two minutes stretched into five. Then six, then seven…

"Sakura?" he allowed himself to whisper, his mouth going dry as he walked, then ran towards the beach. "Sakura?!"

What happened next stopped him in his sandy tracks. His mouth hung open as his feet slid to a stop on the yellowish beach.

In a burst of foam and glistening droplets of seawater, she broke the water's surface, almost performing a full backwards flip before splashing back into the blackened waves.

He rubbed his eyes, blinking several times. Maybe he should have gone home, now he was seeing things…There was no way…

She appeared again, completely oblivious to his presence as she tossed her shimmering hair, somersaulting in the air like a dolphin before reentering the rippling water.

This time he held his index fingers against his temples, he was _definitely_ seeing things. Maybe those mushrooms he had eaten earlier weren't so safe after all…Stupid fungus, making him imagine his best female friend as a…as a _fish_-thing…

When the music began, he knew something was wrong with him. He had never heard anything quite like it before. Its basic sound was definitely a woman singing, but there were other sounds mixed in as well. Sounds that evoked feelings of basking under the boiling sun just below the surface of the water, speeding along the ocean floor in pursuit of an evasive prey, and most of all…

The lulling sound reached a crescendo, singing of the unfettered freedom of the wild blue sea itself. He swayed dizzily where he stood, almost falling down to the sandy ground as the hypnotic music overtook his senses.

_Pretty…_

She reappeared, this hallucination of Sakura. She glided backwards in the water, chanting her captivating melody to the rhythm of her strokes. Even when her pink hair slipped below the waves again, he could still hear it. Going home wasn't such a big deal, he thought to himself as he half-fell onto the loose sand. He could stay here and listen to her all night. Her beautiful, enthralling tunes of the ocean…

He snapped out of it when the sweet crooning was abruptly cut off. He shook his head as he stood up, slightly humiliated that he had been sitting there with a moronic grin for who knows how long.

A piercing scream rent the calm of the night air. _That_ was no hallucination. _That_ was the Sakura's voice he knew.

"Help, somebody! I'm stuck!" she cried, her head dipping up and down considerably far out in the water. As he dropped his coat and shoes in a heap on the sand, he winced, realizing her location. She was right where the automatic fish traps had been placed. Could she be caught in one?

Her choking coughs echoed loudly as she splashed violently, making him certain she was caught as he took a running start into the cool seawater. Those traps were cleverly designed, with rock weights that would sink to ensure the prey was trapped on the ocean floor. This was not good.

"Sakura!" he called out, meeting her gaze as her jade eyes, wide with fright, glanced towards him. "Sakura, hang on! I'll get you out!"

"Sas-!" she tried to call back, before being forced underwater by the thick netting of the trap. The murky water already splashing at his chin, he took a second-long breath before ducking his head under the frothy surface.

The salt stung his eyes and it was almost too dark to see, but he could follow her helpless voice unusually clearly…

The moment something big and dark came within reach, he grabbed at it and grasped a part of the net prison. The weights were already sinking them fast, and he couldn't hold his breath forever.

Immediately he began pulling at the ropes, reassured when her tiny hands clutched firmly onto his wrists to let him know she was still there. He involuntarily coughed, seawater instantly filling his mouth as precious bubbles rose back up to the surface.

"Sasuke!" her voice begged as she tugged at his hands, "Sasuke, go back up!"

Not caring if she could see him or not, he shook his head adamantly, though his grip on the rope was weakening as his lungs screamed for air.

_Just…_ he coughed again, releasing even more bubbles. _One more…_

"Sasuke!" her voice screamed frantically as his hand movements turned sluggish and unresponsive. "Sasuke!"

With a final heave, he yanked part of the rope from the central knot, the exertion causing him to float backwards. The rope easily unraveled, though he was too close to passing out to notice.

Everything was so quiet…and what little light he had seemed to be vanishing…

He managed to open his eyes one last time, another trickle of bubbles escaping from his lips.

A slender, female hand was reaching out to him. Unable to make out the face behind it, he gazed at its oddly webbed fingers. How strange…

His eyes closed, and he succumbed to the darkness.

* * *

Yes, I'm redoing the whole darn thing. As for all you people who read it before, I'm sorry for putting "not enough reviews" as an excuse, that was kind of lame. I couldn't get around to doing anything for this due to personal and family reasons, _not_ just procrastination, not to mention I wasn't happy with it as a whole. So! Enjoy the remake.

As for all you wonderful people who reviewed the first time around, to do so again would bring mountains of happiness to this not-updating-on-time loser author. Though, due to school and work, I can't promise a regular update schedule, but I promise to try and get something out as quick as possible.

Thank you all for readingggg~~ *bow*


	2. Marine Biology

**Sea Story **

**海の物語**

**Chapter Two: Marine Biology**

* * *

He groaned as he awoke to feeling of everything being slow and heavy, an incessant ache throbbing just behind his forehead. The feeling was not unlike awakening after being forcefully knocked unconscious, but the sluggishness in his limbs could only be likened to the use of painkilling herbal mixtures the Konoha doctors used…

"Sasuke?"

His eyes opened groggily. It appeared he was lying down in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room. The only things that comforted him were the leaf-like symbol carved into the ceiling above him and Sakura's reassuring voice somewhere off to his right. He was probably in one of the villager's houses to be treated for those hallucinating mushrooms, he decided…

"S-Sakura…?" he managed to rasp, relaxing as her face appeared in his field of vision.

"Hey," she whispered softly, smiling as she felt his forehead. "How are you feeling, Sasuke?"

He closed his eyes, enjoying the warmth of her touch. "My head…"

"It's ok…you're all right now."

"I had…the weirdest dream…" he murmured, "You were…you were a mermaid, and you were caught in a net, and I went out to rescue you, and then…"

"And…then?" her voice hesitated, probably wondering if his crazy dream was a side-effect of heavy medication.

His eyes opened halfway, meeting her gaze.

"I…I got the trap open, but…I was drowning…"

"No, Sasuke," she whispered, looking away. "You're not drowning."

"Unh…Did…did they drug me up while I was out?" he asked, wanting to know just what kind of mixtures those with healing chakra had poured down his throat.

"No," she answered unexpectedly.

"Then…why is everything so…heavy…? And…I can't feel my arms or legs…"

She bit her lip, her eyes averted.

"Sakura…?" he murmured, growing uneasy.

"Sasuke, I don't really know how to say this, but…"

She pulled her hand back from his forehead. In placing it there, he hadn't seen it at all, only felt. Now his eyes opened wide at the sight of the outstretched fingers hovering before his eyes.

A thin, translucent webbing connected each slim digit. He had a flashing memory of a hand like that reaching out to him, when he had been sinking lower and lower…

"S-Sakura?!"

She hung her head, and moved back from the bed where he lay. His indifferent demeanor forgotten, he forced himself upright and stared.

She still wore the same loose, red outfit as always. But instead of human girl's legs attached to her hips, there was a pink-scaled_ fish tail_ swaying delicately underneath her, the fins adorning the tip waving to him as she blushed, her hands clasped behind her back.

"It wasn't a dream, Sasuke," she admitted with a guilty face.

"But…" His thoughts were racing a mile a minute. "But you…and then…and I was…"

"You _were_ drowning," she stated quietly, her eyes fixed on the floor. "And I did save you. But…"

"But what?" he asked, his heart beating faster. "And…how are you breathing? Don't you have…_gills_?"

"Yes," she answered, "I do. But Sasuke…you were…you were almost dead. Your body had taken in too much water…there was no way I could get you to the surface in time…"

He remained silent as she met his gaze again, her tail drooping downwards.

"I couldn't let you die…so I…"

"You…?" his mouth said automatically.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke," she said quietly, her jade eyes closing. "I used a forbidden spell to save your life…in exchange for my singing, I…"

"You…gave up your singing…?" he said almost sadly.

She gulped, managing to choke out her words between incoming sobs.

"I…I shouldn't have, but…"

His eyes widened when she glided over to him, her face turned away as her hand gripped the sheets covering him.

"I changed you…"

Her hand flung back the covers.

"…Into one of us."

A few, tiny bubbles trickled upwards from the pulsating lines on her neck. He now knew it was because they were underwater, and those nicks were her gills. And in place of his own human legs…

Was a slender fish tail with shimmering ebony scales.

* * *

"I'm sorry, Sasuke…" she whispered as he stared at himself, at the webs between his own fingers and the blue-veined fins of his new tail. "It was the only thing I could think of…"

"…Don't be."

Her head jerked up at his voice.

"You did this to save my life," he said unusually calmly. "I'd prefer living like this over dying."

If they hadn't been surrounded by water, her eyes would've gone teary.

"Oh, Sasuke!" she choked out, throwing her arms around him and hugging him. "Sasuke!"

He closed his eyes as she held him, but he was content. She had saved his life, after all. And they were both freaks of nature. But…it could have been worse. He could be drowned, after all.

"You're just amazing, Sasuke," she said, letting go of him. "And…I guess I owe you an explanation…or two…"

"That would be helpful," he answered, turning around and swinging his tail over the side of the bed before remembering there was almost no gravity underwater. In addition to the tail and webbed fingers, his body now seemed to possess natural buoyancy, lifting him upright without any effort at all to float comfortably at the same level as Sakura.

"I, um…I was born like this…" she began. "But I…actually, it's kind of funny…"

He noted her nervous laugh.

"I got bored with living in the ocean, so I…came up on land and moved into that shack…you were the first human I ever talked to."

He nodded, remembering how nervous she had been way back when he had first noticed lights in the abandoned shed and gone out to investigate…

"Tell me about y-…well…_us_," he said, correcting himself.

"We…we breathe underwater using _these_," she pointed to the gills on her throat. "When we're out of water they close up and we can breathe through our lungs. But, we can't be out too long or we'll dry up."

"Makes sense…" he mumbled, his fingertips tracing the slits on his own neck.

"And we swim like _this_," she explained, flicking her tail a little and gliding gracefully to the wall and back. "We don't use our arms at all. If someone sees you paddling away, they'll know you weren't born like this."

"No paddling. Got it."

"Water people—that's us—have two kinds of speech," she detailed, holding up two webbed fingers. "The first is regular, out-of-water human talking. The second is what we're using right now."

He raised an eyebrow.

"It sounds like normal speech underwater, but up in the air it's just screeches and clicks. Be careful when switching between the two, but don't worry about land people understanding you underwater. They'll only hear it as funny fish noises. Land speech is the only way to communicate with them underwater, but it only works if you're close enough to be heard."

"Ok…" he muttered, remembering hearing her voice calling out to him when he'd been rescuing her.

"Oh, and…um…" she trailed off.

"What?" he urged, unnerved at her vivid blush.

"Um…well, you see…I left you your shirt on, so you wouldn't feel…well…but, um…water people…"

"They're naked," he finished for her.

"Well, just the men," she squeaked out, covering her face with her hands. "So, um…"

He quickly pulled his navy-blue shirt over his head and bundled it up, taking a last glance at the red and white fan-shape stitched onto the back.

"So I won't wear it," he said simply as she took the garment and hid it in one of the room's numerous boxes filled with other articles from land, while biting her lip as her face reddened.

"But, um…this is where I keep…well, my human stuff…'cause we're really not supposed to go up to the surface by ourselves, but I do…I can't help it…"

"All right…"

"So in case you're in trouble, you can hide out here. It's a secret as far as I know."

"Got it."

"So, um…" she blushed again. "I'm going to have to take you to get registered…"

"Registered?"

"As…well, as a citizen. Here, I mean. In the city."

"You have a _city_?"

She nodded. "It's, well, it's where we live…in cities, just like land people…"

"…I'll go."

"And, and if anyone asks, you're from the Southern Quadrant."

"Quadrant?"

"The underwater world is divided into four quarters. In all of these there are separate countries, but each quarter has a capital city. You're lucky we're close to the Northern capital, otherwise it'd take weeks to get to the next-closest city. Now, um, if you wouldn't mind…"

He respectfully looked away as she shrugged off her red robe with its white circle on the back, carefully stowing it in a barnacle-covered box. When he was allowed to turn around again, her clothing consisted merely of an elastic, dark blue piece of cloth wrapped around her chest as she fidgeted uneasily.

"Well, um…" she stammered, obviously uncomfortable with being so revealed in his presence. "Shall we…go, then?"

"Fine," he answered, discovering that with the tiniest flicks of his new tail he could propel himself in all directions with ease, after remembering not to try kicking his nonexistent feet.

"Ok," she murmured as she opened the little shed's door, revealing an endless stretch of blue outside.

This was the ocean.

* * *

"So this is what it's like."

She looked at him, expecting an elaboration. The two had been swimming along for some time, their tails swishing back and forth in almost identical rhythms. The refracted sunlight from overhead flickered above, the cobalt-blue sea almost silent but for the _whoosh_ of churned water behind them.

"Yeah…" she answered, her hands at her sides. "Avoid fishing nets, divers and water-element users during the day…at night, go up and spend time on the beach, maybe sing and dance a little…"

"Don't you…well…sit on rocks and lure sailors to their deaths with deadly music?"

She shook her head. "Just a myth. Those human sailors like to blame us for everything from storms to wrecks…But all of us _can_ sing. You can too."

"Me?" he said in a slightly scoffing tone. "Sing?"

She nodded. "Everyone…but me…"

He nodded in understanding. "You had a beautiful voice. Shame you had to give it up for someone like me."

"Oh no," she protested, "But you were worth it! I mean, singing isn't everything, right? Your life's more important to me than some dumb songs…Speaking of songs, you'd better practice sometime, people our age are expected to know how."

"Teach me," he ordered, though his cheeks turned a faint shade of pink.

"Ok…" she tapped her chin. "Try holding a long 'Ah' sound. That's the easiest one, even little babies can do it."

He nodded, obeying her instructions.

"Louder," she said, gesturing to him.

He felt his gills pulse faster to keep breathing as he held the note without wavering. Slowly, something happened to his voice. His normal tenor changed, twisting and flowing into something slow and hypnotic, something that mimicked the alluring sounds of the ocean in one steady vibration.

He finally let the note drop, amazed that he wasn't even out of breath from holding it so long. Sakura clapped eagerly, her eyes sparkling.

"Good job!" she chirped. "Normally it'd take an ex-human forever to learn to do that. You're amazing, Sasuke!"

He smirked, pleased with himself.

"Try this, it's the first line of the Southern Quadrant anthem. You'd better learn the whole thing, ok?"

"I can do it."

"_Under the blazing summer sun, we raise our hands to the light…_"

He remained silent as she crooned out the song to him. There was no mistaking it.

The lulling, enchanting characteristic of her voice was gone.

* * *

"…And you can change into a human if you want, but only for a little while."

"How do I do it?"

"Well, I can't show you right now, your gills would disappear and you'd drown. That's how we go up to the surface without drying out. You can be out of water for years, but you'll always turn back the moment you hit seawater."

"So…salt water changes you back?"

She nodded, "But only if you're completely submerged. If someone splashes a cupful on you, it won't do anything. You have to be completely underwater. But still, you can always be a human again if there's enough air above the water to breathe. So if you were trapped with something between you and the air, you'd be stuck. Unless you wanted to drown without your gills, of course."

"Hn…" he mumbled thoughtfully. "So…what about the bodies?"

"What it looks like," she answered, "We're completely fish from the waist down. The scales are protective, and help store water when we're up at the surface. The rest is just regular human anatomy, except a passage of the lungs is routed up to the gills, and can be shut off when not in use so we don't drown."

"What about babies?"

Her face turned red. "Um…"

"Do you lay eggs?"

"No!" she squeaked out, shaking her head. "That's, um…the reason we can turn into humans…well…at a beach dance, sailors who find us always say that everyone there is young and beautiful…um…that's because they're there to…pick up girlfriends and boyfriends…"

"So this form can't reproduce?"

"Nope. No eggs. The only openings are tiny and at the tip of the tail, and those are for, um…waste disposal."

He resisted the urge to examine his tail at that sentence.

"So, um…once we've…well, either gotten married or found a partner…we, um…go up to the surface, and…become human…"

He nodded. "And birth?"

"Also on land as a human…but the mother has to be sitting in seawater, because the baby will come out with a tail and gills. Nobody _ever_ gives birth all by themselves, there have to be some others around to make sure the child doesn't float away with the current."

"And the rest is a normal development underwater."

"Yeah, pretty much…boys' voices crack, girls develop their, um…curves…It's just like humans from the belly up."

"Ok…What about if a human and a…?"

"No deal. It has to be two of us to make a complete water baby. A human and one of us will make human children, but those kids will always be inclined towards swimming and the ocean. The stories about sons and daughters discovering they can breathe underwater or whatever are nonsense. The most they might have in terms of physical changes is a little bit of webbing between the fingers. But that's all."

He nodded, it seemed plausible to him.

"Oh, and the age of the forms differ."

"The _what_?"

"See, if one of us becomes a human and goes up onto land for, say, fifty years, they'll grow old because humans age quicker. But if they change back after that fifty years, they'll look like the same age they were when they transformed into a human. That's why you'll meet a lot of people who look our age, but are several times older than us. It's because we as a species age incredibly slowly. It takes the same time as humans to hit and finish puberty, but adulthood in its prime lasts well over two hundred years, sometimes three hundred if you're really lucky."

He blinked in surprise. "So…you'll be hundreds of years old, but still be young?"

"Young and strong. The life cycle is pretty stretched out…middle age starts around eight hundred years…and old age begins at maybe fifteen, sixteen hundred. After that, it's onwards until you die, the life expectancy being about nineteen hundred to two thousand years. It's no wonder why lots of humans would want to become like us, staying young and pretty for two hundred years does sound superior to just thirty."

He merely shook his head in amazement.

"And we keep all of our strength and knowledge much better than humans…you can be an old geezer and still have all the power you accumulated over your lifetime. It's in the last hundred years or so things start to fade, like memory and the body…And then one day, you're dead and there's nothing you can do about it."

"Do you…turn to foam?"

"Nope. You're buried, just like land people. The chemicals in the body break it down very easily…so there's almost no chance of a skeleton being found by humans. And the body's nutrients help vitalize soil for farming."

"Wait…your body's used as _fertilizer_?"

She glanced at him. "Unlike land people, we're not wasteful. We don't consume everything and only give trash in return. Little children are taught not to be like that. They're told we'll end up just like the humans if we do."

"End up like…what?"

"It's been predicted several times," she said with a blank expression. "The land world will soon collapse. Pollution and wars will ravage the earth, and many humans will die. Those that we save will be useful and conserving, the way we've learned to be. It'll be mostly families and orphaned children…people will think they've drowned themselves in the sea, when they are coming to us for shelter. Soon the land will be empty, devoid of people."

"Sakura…" he whispered in shock. "You…it would…"

She turned completely to face him. "I'm sorry, Sasuke. I saved you because you're one of my best friends. I'd do the same for everyone on land if I could. But I've already sacrificed my voice for the exchange. It'd take a whole city to give up their songs for everyone in Konoha alone."

"What about me?"

"You? You could do the same, once you've learned a few chants. They're just like land techniques, only your chakra is channeled and shaped by your voice as you sing. But it's forbidden because you lose your voice…and all the spells that go with it."

"You mean you…?"

"I still have my land magic," she said, looking away. "I can still heal and fight with my hands. I don't rely on singing alone."

For a minute or so, there was silence but for the swishing of their tails as he thought about what she had said. It made sense, in a way. Humans were careless and corrupting…but the whole world being emptied?

"If you're planning to stay here in this city," she said, snapping him out of his thoughts, "you can't cut your hair. The reason you're to say you're from the Southern Quadrant is because they keep their hair short. Here, it's kept long."

"Ok…"

"You can stay in the immigrant hotel. You'll be surrounded by newcomers, so any weird human behavior won't stick out too much."

"_Hotel_?"

"What?" she said almost expectantly. "We have many of the same things as land people. Farming, religion, trading…Ah, here we are."

He turned his attention forward, and completely forgot not to let his mouth drop open again.

Stretched out before him was a gigantic, underwater…

"Atlantis?!"

* * *

Woo, chap 2 reposted. Added s'more stuff in here, but there's still a whole lotta talking...And my own half-baked explanations for mermaid-y stuffs.

Got this great idea for an action scene, but gotta wait until later in the story to use it or it won't make sense...:(


	3. City of the North

**Sea Story **

**海の物語**

**Chapter Three: City of the North**

* * *

"Huh?"

He turned to look at her, his finger still pointing at the huge city before them. "Isn't that what it's called?"

She merely blinked, puzzled. "I've never heard of a city called Atlantis."

"N-Never mind…" he muttered, his face turning pink with embarrassment.

"This," she announced dramatically, spreading her arms wide, "Is Hokubu."

"The city's name is 'North?'"

"The one you're supposed to say you came from is Nanpou. 'South.'"

"Ok…"

"The Southern Quadrant is tropical, and the people are short-haired and pretty."

_Pretty is for girls…_he found himself thinking, almost smirking at the nostalgia.

"…So you'll fit right in with anybody who's really from there. Come on!"

She grabbed him by the wrist, pulling him across the short-leaved forest of seaweed below them as she sped toward the glimmering skyscrapers. He had seen buildings like that on land, but only once when he had his family had taken a trip to the region's capital palace…There, the walls and pillars had been made of marble and gold…what did they use here?

"Everyone's allowed in here, so we don't have walls and fences like humans."

He merely stared in wonder, his tail barely moving as she towed him along. What he at first had thought were surfaces made of glass were really see-through, cerulean-tinted cubes. Each was the size of a large room, and stacked on top of each other like a tower of child's wooden blocks to create those skyscrapers, firmly attached to the cubes around them. As the current moved along up above them, the structures swayed, but never toppled.

"Amazing, aren't they?" she asked, noticing his wide eyes as they approached the city boundary. "The frames are made from welded bones, and the walls from fused sea glass with spells put on it to make it flexible."

He blinked in surprise to see people everywhere among the buildings. Thousands and thousands of fishy people were swimming like massive schools of minnows, both inside and outside the cube-buildings. Their tails were of every conceivable color, always matching their hair as their fins swished, creating currents that seemed to work something like roads, creating a direction for the ones behind to follow. Even underwater, the commuters possessed the same urgency as land people to get where they were going as fast as possible.

"Wow…" he murmured out loud, feeling the pressures of the churning water the moment they were past the outermost buildings. "How long did it take to build all this?"

"About six hundred years," she answered, tapping her chin with her free hand. "Two hundred to gather all the sea glass…another hundred to dig up all the bones…and the rest to put it all together."

She didn't hesitate to drag him right into the nearest river of people, the flow immediately buffeting them as they were jostled along, her hand keeping a firm grip on his wrist. His head still turning around to look at the sights, he decided the feeling was not unlike riding on a train, which he had done only once before.

Taking a split second-gaze away from his surroundings, he realized Sakura had been right about the hair thing. Everyone around him seemed to have waist-length-or-longer flowing tresses no matter their gender. All the women were unusually beautiful and wore simple tops identical to Sakura's but in different colors, the men all possessing a rugged yet fair look while clothed in only their scales. Some glanced at him, making him flinch as if they could tell he wasn't really one of them, but other than that he was paid no real attention to.

"Hang on," said Sakura before yanking on his wrist as she wrenched them out of the road-current with surprising strength. "Here we go! The Immigrations office."

The building before them looked the same as all the others, but for an unreadable plaque attached over the entrance, which was merely an absent wall in the side's grid of bone-framed squares. He took a glance downwards and imagined for a moment they were floating hundreds of feet above a land street, which would be equivalent to their distance from the ocean floor far below.

"Come on," she said, tugging him towards the entrance-hole. "That sign up there just says 'Immigrations,' it's where all the new residents come to get signed up."

He nodded, for once wishing he had learned to read.

The inside of the cube was surprisingly warm, with smaller holes in the walls leading to other rooms. There was even one in the ceiling, which he assumed led to the floor above. A few other fish people were crowded at the other end of the room, all young men and women from what he could tell.

"Shizune!" called Sakura, letting go of his wrist at last. "Shizune?"

One of the group's head jerked up, her dark-colored scales rippling softly as she did so. "Sakura?" she called in obvious surprise. "What are you doing here? It's not even night yet!"

The green-eyed girl grinned, grabbing Sasuke's hand again and pulling him with her as the dark-haired fish-woman approached them with a confused expression. Sasuke glanced at the sleep-deprivation bags under her eyes just once before going back to staring at the translucent floor.

"I'm staying here for a while," Sakura told her acquaintance. "Getting a bit cold up there."

The older mermaid nodded, glancing at a flinching Sasuke. "Who is the Southerner?"

"This is Sasuke," she announced cheerily. "He's moving here, isn't that great?"

"Hello there, Sasuke" the fish-lady said pleasantly. "If Sakura likes you, you must be something special. I'm afraid I'm on break right now, but I'll be back in a minute to help you get all the citizenship paperwork done, ok?"

"O…k…" he answered unsurely.

"Not much of a talker, is he?" commented Shizune, turning and waving before gliding back towards one of the room's door-openings. "I'll be back in a bit for you two, ok?"

"Bye-bye, Shizune!" called Sakura before smiling widely at her dumbfounded friend. "I think she likes you, Sasuke. We got lucky, she was recently appointed as head secretary for the city's royal family itself. If anyone can make sure you get approved, it's her."

He only shook his head in amazement. "Only last week I never would've believed any of this," he said quietly. "It's a bit much."

She squeezed his hand in hers. "Don't worry, you'll get used to it."

* * *

"Sakura!" called Shizune a few minutes later, beckoning as she reappeared from one of the door-holes in the wall. "I got an open office. Let's go!"

"Let's go, Sasuke," Sakura said in her bubbly tone, without grabbing his hand this time. "It might take a while, but once we're done you can stay here as long as you want."

"Ok…" he answered quietly, following her as she swum over to the opening and slipped right through to the other side. He did the same, glancing at the people in the room before following her through a ceiling opening.

Several rooms later and they arrived at an empty one, with black shelves stacked against one wall and filled with sheets of lime-green, paper-like things. Shizune had already picked up several, along with something like a stick-pen and a board to lean against for writing.

"I guess you're staying here with him?" she asked, smiling at Sakura as she pushed Sasuke forward. "That means he can't read Northern script, then."

She shook her head. "Nope. Not a word. But I'll teach him."

"Sasuke, was it? I'm going to ask you some questions, and it might get a little boring, but we'll get it over with as soon as possible, ok?"

He nodded, his webbed hands clasped behind his back.

"Ok…" mumbled Shizune, scratching her stick-pen across a sheet of the greenish paper. "'Sas…kay,' and…What's your last name?"

"Uchiha," answered Sakura for him. "With the character for Dragon, not Sand."

"Mm-hmm…And how old are you?"

"S-Seventeen…" he mumbled, his voice rising at the end as if he were asking a question.

"You used to live in Nanpou, correct?"

He nodded, remembering Sakura's words.

"Can I speak to your parents sometime?"

He merely closed his eyes, his head drooping as Sakura pointed to him and shook her head.

"Oh," whispered Shizune. "I'm so sorry, Sasuke. But I'm going to need their names, ok?"

"F-…Fugaku and…Mikoto…" he answered softly.

"Ok…Did you graduate any schools in Nanpou?"

"He took a year of Human Studies at their Academy," cut in Sakura. "Top of his class in the biology and psychology courses."

"Nice job," approved Shizune respectfully as her pen scribbled away. "You're just like Sakura here, she's all about those two-legged guys…Element?"

He glanced at Sakura while she pouted sadly, as if hearing unfortunate news.

"It's fire, actually," she answered for him again. "Not the luckiest chance of birth."

"It's not such a big deal," consoled Shizune. "We have lots of people here with fire. Now, back to business…"

* * *

"And…" mumbled Shizune, flipping through the papers she held, "It looks like that's the last of it!"

Sasuke exhaled in relief, as it felt like they had been there for hours, answering question after question. But finally, it was _over_.

"I just have to file these in, and once you pass you're good to go," said the dark-scaled fish-woman, smiling in genuine happiness. "Good job on staying awake, Sasuke."

"How old is she?" he whispered to Sakura as Shizune glided over to the shelves, sifting through a few objects jumbled messily in piles.

"Ninety-two," she whispered back as the subject of their conversation swam back, a little dust-colored ball clutched in her hand.

"Here," she said, taking Sasuke's hand and pressing it onto his palm. "Eat up, it's the last one I had today."

He glanced at Sakura for instructions, and she nodded with a smile. Cupping the gray sphere in both hands, he swallowed it quickly, tasting something warm and slightly sour in its smooth texture.

"There you go," said a smiling Shizune. "That'll speed up some follicle growth, so you won't stick out as a Southerner for long."

He choked, eyes wide as he coughed up bubbles, his hands grasping at his throat. So _that_ was what that was for?!

"Let's go, Sasuke," said Sakura, oblivious to his churning stomach as she took him by the wrist once more. "I'll show you the way to the hotel. Bye, Shizune! Thanks for everything!"

"Take care, Sakura!" she called back as the two left through a hole in the room's floor.

"You could've warned me," he muttered once they were out of earshot.

"What? You were thinking you'd wait until your hair grew by itself?" she asked, genuinely surprised. "That's human thoughts, Sasuke. We have spells and items with magic in them for changing the body, you just haven't learned any yet."

He sighed, wincing in the sudden orangey light as they exited the building through a different hole in the side, the sun already setting off in the blurry horizon. Soon enough they were back in one of the city's twisting currents, before Sakura almost dislocated his arm yanking him out of the river of people. He simply blinked, the building they had stopped at looking exactly like all the others. The sun's reddish light made the blue walls almost glow a light shade of violet.

"That sign up there says it's the hotel for people who just came here and don't have places to live yet. I would let you stay with me, but that's not allowed until you're a citizen. Oh, and I meant what I said, you're learning how to read whether you like it or not."

"That's fine by me," he murmured, following her in through another wall-sized entrance. As they swam through more rooms towards the center of the building, he saw only thickly-woven blankets and what looked like sponges in the shape of cushions.

"Are we…is it ok for us to just go through people's rooms like this?" he asked nervously. "I mean…none of them are locked, and…"

"Sasuke," she rolled her eyes, "You're thinking like a human again. Everyone here has the exact same bed and bedding. And everyone in the city keeps their valuables in the Reef, protecting them from theft by spells. Only the upper-class people bother with locks and keys in their _houses_."

"But…what about privacy?" he pressed. "Don't people care about that?"

"What's there to hide?" she responded. "I'll admit, humans do have a rather disgusting way of releasing their excrement so they _need_ to hide that. Here, it just comes out as a liquid and blends with the water. No need for special rooms or pits dug in the ground."

He shut his mouth, knowing she was right in some strange way. But he still couldn't shake the nervousness of just slipping through someone else's quarters. Sakura wasn't bothered at all, her eyes flicking over the walls of each room, where an identical sign sat in the same place, until…

"Here!" she exclaimed, finally stopping in one and pointing to the sign, whose characters were different from all the others. "It's vacant. You can stay here for now."

He glanced around the cubical room, for it was indeed identical to the rest in the hotel but for the blankets on the sponge-bed being smooth and neat instead of wrinkled and unmade by their occupants.

"It's getting late," she said, the sun's light somewhere outside already fading as she flipped over the room's sign to what she later said spelled _taken_. "I've got to get home. I'll come see you tomorrow, ok?"

He nodded. "I'll wait for you."

"Sasuke," she said, placing a hand on his shoulder as he turned away from her.

"…Yeah?"

She sighed almost sadly, a complete shift from her normally cheerful attitude.

"Sasuke…if…if it feels like I'm forcing you into anything, just-"

He turned back around, taking her hand in his and gently squeezing it.

"You saved my life," he said slowly, "And you've given me somewhere to go. You're a true friend, Sakura. Don't feel guilty."

She smiled widely at him, doling out a well-received hug.

"You're welcome, Sasuke. Nighty-night."

He returned her wave as she left through one of the room's door-holes. He glided over to the bed sitting on the floor, the cushions propped up against the wall behind it. The sheets were heavy in order to sink to the floor, floating down on him as he slid under them while grabbing the nearest flat sponge for a pillow. Beyond the translucent wall to his left, he could just make out the blurred shape of that room's occupant doing the same as the final rays of sunlight slowly disappeared.

He closed his eyes, but found himself unable to sleep for a few minutes. There seemed to be something absent, something important…

If he hadn't been so used to hiding his emotions, he would've chuckled. He was missing the sound of the waves crashing on the beach back home.

The thought of home led to the thought of Naruto, his friends, the store…whose key he had left on the beach…Sakura's shed…that order to Asuma…Kakashi feeding Naruto noodles…Having two legs and breathing through his nose, not his neck…

He yawned out a few bubbles, tuning out the crowding thoughts with a constant imagined sound of waves breaking as he drifted off to sleep…

* * *

Moreness. Late updating due to convention-attending. Nurr.


	4. Humble Abodes

**Sea Story **

**海の物語**

**Chapter Four: Humble Abodes**

* * *

_He and she were lying on the beach he knew so well, the overhead sun beating down on them. Their eyes were closed, but they held each other's hands as they lay side by side, their tails splashed at by the oncoming waves as their human halves were warmed by the sunlight._

_His eyes opened, blinking away the habitual blue-tinted vision of lying under the sun, and glanced at her, her usually pale skin tanned a rather pretty shade of brown. She was smiling, her pink tail tickled by the foam of the crashing waves. He had been about to reach out and touch her cheek when the thumping of many footsteps came from behind them._

_He twisted around, and stared in shock at the entire village of Konoha standing there on the sand, every eye wide and every mouth hanging open._

"_A witch!" shouted someone in the crowd, pointing to Sakura who by then had awakened as well. "She's turned the poor Uchiha boy into a fish!"_

"_I'm not a fish!" he shouted angrily back, but before he knew what was happening, he had been whisked away from Sakura and flung over Anko—Kakashi's girlfriend's shoulder like a sack of potatoes as she carried him through a blurry, indistinct Konoha._

"_Hey!" he protested, "Put me down!"_

_The purple-haired woman paid him no heed, and the next thing he knew, he had been shoved into something small, warm, and smoky. He coughed, hacking up seawater onto what seemed to be burning coals below him with a hiss of steam. The smoke making him lightheaded, he swayed dizzily before collapsing in a heap on whatever was between him and the fire below._

_He felt the heat disappear as a pair of hands picked him up, sitting him down on something cold and shiny before everything went dark, though his eyes were wide open._

"_Here you are, Honey," said Anko's voice as he was placed down on a surface with a thunking noise. "Just the way you like it."_

_The dark thing above him was lifted, and to his horror, he realized he was lying on a dinner platter on someone's table! Even worse, Naruto and Kakashi were seated around him with faces full of hunger!_

"_Looks great, Sweetie," said Kakashi through his ever-present mask. "Seems nice and brown, that means it's good."_

"_Hmm," murmured Naruto, squinting at his terrified best friend. "This reminds me of poor old Sasuke, turned into a fish by his girlfriend…"_

_He was, despite the situation, about to shout that she wasn't his girlfriend when Anko grinned sadistically right at him and produced a huge knife with a ridged edge, meant for cutting through solid bone. "I think he'll taste lovely," she said, raising the blade._

_He screamed like a little girl as the shining metal came down-_

* * *

His eyes snapped open, and for a split second he was sure he had died, and was in the tunnel with the light at the end before the darkness disappeared as he bolted upright.

Squinting against the light streaming down from above, he rubbed at his eyes before glancing around him. It was the aquamarine hotel room and spongy bed, not his familiar old attic and lumpy duck-feather mattress.

He exhaled after lifting the heavy blankets to reveal his onyx scales glimmering softly in the morning sunlight. He really _was_ underwater and part fish, and it hadn't all been some crazy dream…

Something was tickling the back of his neck. He reached around to scratch at the spot before his hand got itself tangled in something silky-soft. His eyes opened wide when he pulled it and something tugged on his head.

To say he was surprised when felt the back of his head would be an understatement. For a good minute, he sat, frozen, eyes wide in disbelief as he fingered the dark hairs that _definitely_ had been shorter the previous night. So that little magic-infused sphere really worked after all.

His first impulse, despite Sakura's words ringing through his head, was to grab for something sharp and get _rid_ of this extra trouble. The _last_ thing he wanted was to end up looking like a girl. Sakura already called him pretty, what would she say if it got too long? Maybe nothing, as in this place everyone looked like that, but still…

He exhaled with a defeated groan. Even if he did manage to cut it, it's just start growing again…and all the other men seemed to be able to cope with it, so why not him?

He could feel his slightly-longer hair rippling as he exited the bed, gliding upright and stretching his hands upwards. It'd probably look ridiculous while he was swimming once it grew out, flowing out behind him like…well, like a girl's…

"Feeling better this morning, Sasuke?"

He froze again, his eye twitching rapidly as Sakura swum around to face him from the front, smiling deceivingly innocently. Where had she come from?!

"You…" he pointed a single finger at her, "Your…_magic_…"

Her smile became a quivering bottom lip and puppy-eyes. "You…you don't like it, Sasuke?"

"No, I don't!" he muttered angrily, gripping at the back of his head with both hands.

Her face fell. "Oh…well…I…I'm sorry…I didn't…"

His guilt immediately slapped him in the face. "Hey…don't…it's not your fault," he managed to say, placing his hands on her shoulders as she covered her face behind her webbed fingers. "I can deal with it…don't…don't cry…"

"Are you sure?" she asked, sniffling even though they were underwater.

He forced a half-smile to reassure her. "Yeah. I'll be fine. I…overreacted."

She smiled back, before pointing to the sponge-bed. "Sit down, I'll comb it for you."

He obeyed, catching a glimpse of what looked like whale baleen-brush stuck to a handle before she ran it through his inky-black spikes, unsnarling knots as she went.

"It's very beautiful," she said, making him grimace. "You're lucky…Some people's get all coarse and rough when it grows, but not yours. Yours is so sleek and shiny…"

"Um…thanks…?"

"And it's natural, too…Some people spend lots of money to have theirs soft like this."

He merely winced as she babbled on about hair upkeep, complimenting his spikes' softness and fullness. He decided though everything else was nothing short of amazing, this was one part of being like this he could live without.

"S-…Sasuke?" she asked tentatively, brushing some stray locks away from the back of his neck.

"Hm?" he mumbled back.

"What's this here? It looks like a…like a bite mark or something…"

"Snakebite. I was twelve."

She winced, though he couldn't see it. "Ouch."

"It doesn't hurt now," he told her, anticipating her next question. She smiled at nothing in particular before returning to her brushing.

"…So anyway, today I'm taking you to see the city," she said, giving his hair a last run-through before allowing him to get up. "See the sights. Sound fun?"

"Ok…sure…" he mumbled, ignoring the impulse to swat at the tickling sensation around the back of his neck. He would have to learn to deal with it sometime.

She smiled widely, saying "Then let's go!" as he followed her out of the room.

"We'll go see the Palace first after stopping at my place," she called back as they neared the building's outer wall exit. "Then the Reef…then we can grab something to eat and just wander for a bit. How's that sound?"

"…Fine…"

"Cheer up, Sasuke," she ordered lightheartedly, giving his arm a soft pinch as his pupils contracted painfully in the intensified light. Just as before, the currents of many people swimming together hit them like a moderate breeze without the walls of the buildings in the way.

"We don't have to ride the flow," she explained as he followed her off in a different direction. "I live nearby. Shizune pulled a few strings for me, so I can meet all the newcomers whenever I like."

"You two must be good buddies," he murmured quietly.

"I've known her since I was about ten," she answered, not catching the microscopic speck of envy in his voice. "So yeah, we've been friends for quite a while."

"Hn…"

Glancing around at the people, he noticed fewer of them than before gave him more than a second glance. The more he looked like them, the more he seemed to become invisible.

"What kinds of foods do you like, Sasuke?" she asked, bringing his mind back to earth. Or back to _sea_…

He thought for a minute or so before answering. "Spicy."

"Spicy?"

"Spicy foods. It was a treat for me when I was little…on special occasions I'd be given curry or something else hot…nobody but me liked the stinging taste, so I'd have it all to myself…"

"Oh, you'll love jellyfish, then."

"_Jellyfish?_"

She nodded cheerily, "Uh-huh! If it's warmed up properly, it's piping hot and the sprinkling of venom gives it a nice nip."

"…You eat _fish_?" he asked, almost in disgust. "Isn't that…cannibalism?"

She blinked. "We're not fish, Sasuke. And fish eat each other all the time, like barracudas and eels and…"

"…Never mind, then…" he mumbled, face pink in embarrassment for making the assumption.

"We don't eat land _or_ water people," she told him as they rounded a corner of one of the buildings. "_That's_ forbidden obviously, I mean, cannibalism? Ew. But everything else is allowed. Some people like anemones, but I don't care for those. Whale meat's a bit tough, but if you season it just right it's really yummy…Oh, and we have vegetarians who only eat weeds and shells…"

This time, she noticed his expression of surprise as the two swam through a building entrance.

"Discarded shells. Crunchy, high in calcium and protein. Usually served with the animal inside, but it's taken out for those who don't eat meat."

He decided against informing her that on land the shells were sold or thrown away, never eaten. After several slightly furnished rooms, they came to hers.

"Ta-daa!" she announced, spreading her arms wide as he wriggled through the door-hole in the floor. "Here we are!"

He silently took in her abode. Shelves upon shelves were stacked up to the ceiling, from which hung strung-up jawbones with jagged teeth. Just visible behind the stacks of shelves were a few wall scrolls attached to the bluish glass. As he studied the brightly-colored rug stuck firmly to the floor, she glided over to one of the shelves, opening a box and retrieving more of those greenish paper-things.

"This is…um…" she murmured, blushing, "My book…"

He nodded in understanding, forcing himself to ignore the tickle of his hair as he did so. "Two copies. I see."

"People think it's weird for me to be writing about humans," she said softly, carefully placing her pages back in their box and snapping the lid closed. "But…their notion of rigorous adventure and true love…"

Her hands clasped themselves over her heart as she closed her eyes, smiling.

"I think it's just beautiful. People willing to sacrifice everything for a loved one…I've tried recreating that in my book, but…"

"You're better than you think," he told her as her eyes opened again. "I couldn't tell it wasn't written by a human at all."

She grinned widely. "I'm making progress then. Ready to see the city?"

"Yeah."

* * *

"…And the library's that building over there, see all the floors up top with the darkened walls? That's 'cuz of all the shelves with all the scrolls and books and records."

He nodded, cautiously taking another nibble at the whitish, gelatinous blob wrapped in pinkish paper-like material in his hands as he followed Sakura's tour through the less-crowded "streets" of Hokubu. She was right, jellyfish _did_ burn something like chili peppers…

"And there," she pointed to another cube-building, "is where Shizune lives. Right in the middle there."

"Does anyone live at the bottom?" he asked, glancing down at the murky, indistinct ocean floor quite a ways down from where they floated. Good thing he had no fear of heights.

"Nah," she shook her head. "The foundations have the strongest frames, but it's too dark and full of crabs and weeds. Those are just for storage."

_Sounds like my room back home…_

She didn't notice his face falling slightly as they passed many other people going in every direction. Some of them were also holding food, as Sakura had told him many had jobs that didn't allow much free time and had to eat on the run. He stopped looking after seeing a man scrape the meat out of a clam and crunch on the _shell_ instead.

"So, Sasuke…ready to see the Palace?"

"…Sure."

* * *

-

YEY TOURISM. Don't worry, all of this plays into future chapters. Yes, all of it. Nyurr.


	5. The Palace

**Sea Story **

**海の物語**

**Chapter Five: The Palace**

* * *

"W-…wow…"

He'd only seen one castle like this before in his entire life, and it had been a _third_ the size of this underwater Palace. That had been the fortress-city of the daimyo that ruled the lands that contained Konoha, but it had only expanded so far in the rocky, mountainous terrain where it had been strategically placed. The endless flat sands here underwater were more giving for the enormous structure he was currently gaping at.

Sakura grinned proudly at him. "Impressive, eh?"

Before them was a massive compound, sprawling what seemed like miles in all directions. Unlike the tinted cubes of the city buildings, the structure seemed to be covered in mother-of-pearl-like material, glimmering softly with an opaque white sheen. All over the walls were entrance and exit holes, with fish-people busily hurrying back and forth. The sight reminded him of the servants at the only land castle he'd ever visited, always running off to fetch this or that for their masters.

Unlike the rest of the aquatic city, this Palace seemed more similar to land palaces. Huge battlements reached up toward the surface of the water itself, all rooftops covered with what looked like driftwood and woven seaweed. Coral reefs grew like gardens on open platforms, displaying colorful growths reflecting brightly off of the mosaics made of sea glass that served as mural-like decoration.

"It's…" he murmured, enthralled, "…magnificent."

"Well, let's go see the inside!"

Again he allowed his hand to be grabbed as she swam towards the great stronghold, the underwater "breeze" kicking up again as they neared the hub of activity.

"But…" he mumbled, turning his head to take in the sights, "there aren't any guards."

The look she gave him in return reminded him that, with his human mindset, he'd just said something stupid again.

"All right," he grumbled unwillingly, "_why_ aren't there any guards as compared to land palaces?"

"Be-_cause_," she said, rolling her eyes as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "we're not at _war_ all the time. If there's one thing I'll never get about humans, it's why they love hurting each other so much."

As she was speaking, she pulled him along through one of the larger entrances. Craning his head backwards, he stared in surprise to see the edges of the circular hole lined with numerous sparkling jewels of every color. The sheer amount decorating each entrance combined would be enough to buy a whole _country_.

"If we're lucky," Sakura said over her shoulder as her head turned back and forth, "we might find some of the royal family puttering around. And yes," she continued, seeing his questioning expression, "they actually _talk_ to their subjects. Only land nobility seems to want to distance themselves from the very people who give them their power."

The room the two of them entered was massive, many times the size of the city's little cube-rooms. The walls were the same pearly opaque as the Palace's exterior, every entrance decorated with jewels and other sparkling materials. And as he glanced between the fish-people coming and going, Sasuke noticed several of them wore dazzling jewelry, necklaces and bracelets made of expensive-looking pieces of carved gemstones and coral beads. Some even had long coils of gold and silver chains wrapped tightly around the tips of their tails, glittering enticingly every time their fins moved. He supposed these decorations all designated rank as Sakura led him through another entrance-hole.

"I know two of them personally," she explained as they passed yet more people bedecked in their gleaming ornaments. "Children of the royal family's advisors. They never really get along, but where you find one, you'll usually find the other. One of them's kind of a jerk, and one of them's too shy for her own good. But I think they'll like you."

He only nodded, still trying to turn his head fast enough to keep from missing anything. This richness, this tremendous wealth…it was probably better to have been hidden down here under the sea. Otherwise, it'd have been torn to pieces by the poor of the land kingdoms, and squandered within the year. Even he himself was feeling the urge to calculate the worth of this trove of riches. Some part of him that remained oblivious to his transformation was already estimating how much improving the shop back home would cost, how much could be saved for winter, how much would be put aside for the food budget…

Luckily, Sakura didn't seem to have noticed his guilty face as she released his hand, scanning a small crowd of adolescent-looking fish-people gathered in one of the rooms while Sasuke rubbed his sore wrist. It hurt like a rope burn after half an hour of being pulled…

"Hina!" she called suddenly, smiling happily and waving her arms enthusiastically. "Hina! Over here!" Turning back to Sasuke, she grinned, "Here's one of them. She's shy, remember, so be nice."

One of the fish-people reluctantly broke apart from the mob, approaching them with a timid flutter of her dark fins. As she drew closer, it was clear her flowing hair and scales were not black, but a combination of darkest blue and violet. She was pale, with large lavender eyes and her fingers clasped up below her chin in a gesture of innocence. What most humans would first notice was the thick gold choker decorated with pieces of turquoise hanging around her neck, and Sasuke felt guilty for even looking at it.

"Hina," Sakura greeted her with a friendly tone, "It's been forever."

"Y-yes," the girl squeaked in a high, quavering voice. "N-not since last summer, r-really…"

"This is Sasuke," Sakura indicated her companion. "He just moved here from Nanpou. Thought I might bring him here for a while."

"It…it is an honor to meet you, your ladyship," Sasuke murmured, remembering how land nobility loved to be bowed to. Perhaps it was the same here, as well.

"Oh, he's…" the girl stammered as he righted himself again, "He's very p-polite…"

"Yeah, that's Sasuke," said a proudly-smiling Sakura. "Hey, is your cousin around?"

The girl glanced back over her shoulder once before whispering, "Y-yes, I think so…"

A gesture from Sakura, and the three of them approached the crowd, which seemed to be composed entirely of the teenage offspring of Palace nobility, as indicated by their decoration. The most important, the king and queen's child probably, had arms hidden underneath rows upon rows of coral bracelets, all arranged in a glorious rainbow of colors that rippled when the child moved. But the one they seemed to be searching for was a boy seeming about Sasuke's age, with chocolate-brown hair reaching well past his waist and the same lavender eyes as Sakura's acquaintance, and sporting an identical turquoise necklace. His bored expression didn't change as Sakura playfully pushed him on the shoulder.

"Neji," she giggled, "Are we playing statues again or are you making that face on purpose?"

His eyes merely narrowed as Sakura burst out laughing and his relative clapped a hand over her mouth to hold back a soft giggle. For a stomach-turning moment of homesickness, Sasuke was reminded of himself and Naruto, and their similar behavior back home in Konoha…

He was shaken back out of his thoughts by Sakura patting him on top of his head and introducing him to the snooty noble's boy. His lilac eyes examined Sasuke from head to tail, all the while keeping that disdaining look on his pale face.

"It is an honor to meet you, your lordship," he said again, repeating his respectful bow. The pale-eyed boy merely nodded after, as if he expected to be treated as such.

"Come on, Sasuke," teased Sakura. "Neji's just a spoiled guppy. No need to bow to him all the time or it'll go to his head. Anyways," she turned to the two noble children, "I thought, since he's new, you two might help us think of something for Sasuke here to get to know more people. You know, like a festival if there was one coming soon. Got anything?"

The two were quiet for a moment, their matching mauve eyes glancing around in deep thought, before the girl spoke.

"W-well…maybe…in two…in two days, there's a…there's an autumn hunt…" she whispered, twiddling her fingers together. "I…I know N-Neji is going, and…and maybe your f-friend would like to c-come…?"

"It's in two days, as Hinata said," remarked Neji, speaking for the first time. "A shark hunt, to be precise. Not the sort of thing I'd expect a rookie to attend, but he can if he must."

"Great!" Sakura answered, noticing Sasuke's glance in her direction that said he didn't understand a word of it. "We'll talk it over, but I think he'll like it. Hey, what time is it right now?"

"Midday," Hinata answered with her usual murmur.

"Really? Oh, geez, we're running late. I promised to show Sasuke the Reef," Sakura said quickly, glancing at the entrance they had come into this room by. "Hope you two don't mind."

"Oh no, it's f-fine," Hinata stammered while her cousin merely mumbled something inaudible. "H-hope to see you again s-soon…"

But any more words of farewell were lost as Sakura grabbed her ex-human by the wrist once more and led him back out through the same jewel-encrusted hole as the last several rooms.

"I think that went well," Sakura told him with a proud smile. "They seemed to like you. Don't be fooled by Neji, he thinks of all boys as rivals to be crushed before he gets to anything like friendship. That's just the way he is."

_That sound like the way I used to be,_ he thought, remembering back to the way he and Naruto had fought their way into close friendship through countless challenges in attempt to best one another. An additional pang of homesickness followed that thought, and this time Sakura seemed to notice, subsequently loosening her iron grip on his wrist.

"The Reef is kind of like human banks," she said to distract him. "Everyone has their own little place where they keep their important things. Some people keep their documents and heirlooms in there just because they're messy housekeepers and are afraid they might lose them…"

He nodded, but dejectedly, only half-listening. They had by now reached the outside of the glorious Palace, but its glittering magnificence held no wonder to him now. Now when the thought of home had wormed its way into his mind, reminding him of Konoha and everyone in it. They probably thought he had drowned, finding his things left in a heap on that idyllic beach. They might be having a funeral for him right now, covering teary faces with black cloth and burning little sticks of incense in his memory.

Sakura immediately sensed his deepening unhappiness, releasing his wrist and threading her fingers with his instead.

"Hey…Sasuke…do you…want to go home?" she asked gently, not seeming disappointed at all when he nodded silently, secretly thankful that his eyes couldn't seem teary underwater.

* * *

He couldn't quite remember how they had gotten back to the Immigrant Hotel, or how it had suddenly become so late that the sun had already begun its descent below the watery horizon. All he knew was that he was sitting curled up on his spongy bed in his room, and Sakura was beside him, trying to coax him into eating something before he wasted away.

"Come on, Sasuke," she cajoled soothingly, holding a decidedly juicy-looking piece of meat in one hand while her other stroked his raven-colored hair. "Just a little bit. Please? For me?"

He wanted to tell her that he didn't feel like eating, though he knew he should. Thinking of home and everyone lamenting his supposed death was far worse than merely depressing. The way fate seemed to want it, he might as well starve to death, and give meaning to their troubles.

"Sasuke, please," Sakura pleaded again. "I know…I know what it's…just…come on, I won't go until you eat something. Please."

His gaze drifted from the food to her big, green eyes that begged him to do as she asked. There was no flicker of regret in those shining emeralds, only the purest concern for the welfare of a friend.

"…Fine…" he mumbled, taking the food with reluctance. Her attitude changed instantly from insistent to relieved, her lips turning up in a genuine smile as he crammed the meat in his mouth.

"Thank you," she said softly, placing a hand on his shoulder as he chewed. "I…I'm sorry, Sasuke…I know you agreed, but…I'm sorry you can't see them again…Forgive me…"

He looked at her for a long time, swallowing the last of the sweet-tasting meat before saying slowly, "…It's nothing. I'll feel better tomorrow."

"Good," she said contentedly, winding her fingers back into his ebony tresses. "I'll bring more of that flounder if you like, just for you."

He only nodded silently, enjoying the feel of her little fingers gently tugging at his hair. Maybe…having it this way wasn't so bad, as when she combed it with her hands, it felt so nice…

"I've got to go," she whispered, drawing her hands back with obvious unwillingness. "I'll be back tomorrow…ok?"

"I'll feel better," he promised as she stretched before heading for the exit of the small room, glancing back over her shoulder once to give him another smile before she was through the hole and gone.

He lay back on his spongy bed, watching the walls and ceiling around him grow darker as the sun slowly vanished. He didn't feel like he deserved any of this, from living here in this place, to having a friend like Sakura, to even being alive right now. He was supposed to have drowned, and Sakura even gave up her magic singing to keep him alive.

But that meant she wanted him around, and no amount of homesickness could make things back to the way they were. Pulling the blankets over himself for the second night in a row, he snuggled back down into a comfortable position, hoping that by the next morning the hazy cloud around his disposition would have vanished.

And hoping for an explanation as to why his thoughts of Sakura wouldn't seem to go away…

* * *

Because homesickness is a pain in the anus.

Wow, looooong time between updates. My life gets in the way.


	6. Catch and Release

**Sea Story**

**海の物語**

**Chapter Six: Catch and Release**

* * *

"Autumn hunts are kind of a tradition in Hokubu," explained Sakura. "They don't have much like them in the South, so it won't seem strange if you don't know anything about them. All the younger people in the city who feel like it get together sometime before summer ends and, well…go on a big old hunt. It's not really my thing, but there's lots of people our age you might feel comfortable with."

He nodded silently, his wrist now numb to her fingers clamped around it as she led him through the enormous underwater city that was Hokubu. In all aspects, it was similar to a land city in the sense that it was impossible to navigate to a tourist like him. Each and every building seemed identical, and would be until she taught him more than a symbol or two of their identifying signs.

"You'll probably go for sharks or something," she continued, craning her head back over her shoulder every now than then to make sure he could hear her clearly. "Something big and tough. I mean, bragging about tailing some minnows isn't all that courageous."

"I see," he answered oh-so-eloquently.

"You're new at it, so don't try anything stupid," she warned with a serious look. "Some people try to be all show-offy and the next thing they know they've got a chunk of their tail missing."

He winced, having to keep from glancing down to check that he was still in one piece.

"…So just stay with a big group," she advised. "You're more likely to get targeted if you're all by yourself. Stick with Neji or anyone with experience."

He grumbled on the inside at the thought of putting up with that snob, but decided he preferred it over becoming nautically disabled.

The endless stretch of blue he hadn't seen since entering the city was suddenly visible as Sakura led him past the outermost buildings and into the open. Suddenly, being outside the city limits seemed to bring on a slight case of agoraphobia. In all directions but backward, the never-ending blue haze looked as if one could just wander off into the blurred horizon and never be able to find their way back.

"I know," Sakura said to him, "It seems like it goes on forever. But don't worry, this place is visible for miles. So, you'll almost always find your way back."

She then proceeded to lead him even further away from the translucent skyscrapers, and the rest of the ocean steadily grew more populated. Schools of fish passed by without appearing to notice them, and the sandy ocean floor below soon disappeared under seaweed, rocks, skeletal remains of huge creatures, and what suspiciously resembled a few sunken boats.

"One word of advice, don't get too close to the bottom out here," Sakura told him after noticing him examining the ground beneath. "Lots of animals are the kinds that wait around at the bottom for dead things to sink, and they'll attack any fresh meat they find."

He shivered instinctively, his mind suddenly filled with images full of silent, yet brutal carnage.

"But you and the guys will be fine," she said, suddenly cheery. "Look, there it is."

Ahead were several blurry dark shapes, but as they neared, they turned out to be enormous rocky structures that resembled ruins of land buildings. Even this far away, a large group of fish-people were gliding around in obvious excitement. His eyes quickly picked out Neji, but the rest were unfamiliar.

"Sakura!" one of them shouted as they noticed the new arrivals. "Has the loveliest jewel in Hokubu finally decided to grace us with her presence as we revel in the burning light of youth?"

"Not today, Lee," she answered teasingly to the young fish-man who had spoken, obviously unfazed by his weirdly-enormous eyebrows. "But I've brought someone who might like it."

Ignoring the boy's deflated expression, she introduced her charge to the members of the group, all of whom regarded the newbie with pull-the-other-one kind of looks.

"Hey, Southerner," a girl with mud-colored hair and scales called as she appeared from the back of the group. "Nervous?"

"No," he answered coolly, "just curious."

"Be nice, you guys," ordered Sakura. "Don't let him hurt himself."

And once again, her charge felt a pang of sadness at the sight of her pink-scaled tail swishing softly in the clear water as she waved one last time before gliding gracefully away, and leaving him alone with this group of adventure-hungry teenagers.

"Dinner on me if the newbie gets bit!" shouted a male voice in the back.

His heart sank lower than any of these lost shipwrecks could possibly hope to go.

* * *

"All right, all of you. For the _new_ group members," the brown-haired girl announced, sending Sasuke a specifying look, "I'll make this quick. We're looking for something big, dangerous, and dumb. No whales, no dolphins. _Sharks_."

An excited muttering flittered between several eager fish-teens.

"We'll start off in groups, and get back together once we find a target. Now, who wants to babysit the Southerner?"

Had they been on land and not underwater, crickets could've been heard chirping in the dead silence that followed.

"…We'll take him!" shouted a voice, and Sasuke's hopes soared until he saw who had spoken. None other than the weirdo guy with the giant eyebrows who liked Sakura. Oh, joy.

"All right, the newbie's with Lee's group. The rest of you know your leaders. Get on out of here!"

As if by instinct, the rest of the excited fish-kids divided up into neat groups and sped off in pursuit of what they hoped would be a "big catch." Leaving Sasuke alone with the eyebrow-guy, a bored Neji, a wild-looking kid with angry red marks on his face, and the girl with the mud-colored hair who decidedly hated him.

"Thanks a lot, Lee," muttered the feral-looking boy. "Now _we've_ got to watch the Southerner."

"Quiet, Kiba," ordered the brown-haired girl, whose name would be later revealed to be Tenten. "It doesn't matter now, we've got to find a target before the rest of them do. Let's go already!"

Ah, yes, Sasuke thought. Following a bunch of excitement-hyped teenagers off into unexplored waters in pursuit of some monstrous fish that just might try to take a chomp out of an unsuspecting limb. Fun stuff, unless one counts the imminent threat of death by shark bite.

"Shut up," he muttered to himself before following the rest of the group and Lee's rantings of the power of youth. More likely than not, they'd cast their unwanted addition as bait.

_Yeah…I'm screwed._

* * *

It was late. The hunt had gone on for hours now, as morning had aged into afternoon and the sun had begun its prolonged journey down from its noontime apex.

"Now stay quiet, all of you."

For once, the unruly members of the gang obeyed Neji's order as they crowded behind the prickly wall of an oddly-shaped chunk of stone. After splitting up with the others, this group had practiced stealthily checking out each area of coral and seaweed before reporting back to the rest. So far, and rather fortunately in some cases, no target had yet been discovered.

_Whew…maybe this whole thing will just blow over…I mean, I'm not scared or anything, it's just…unnerving to be out here and knowing that some huge fish could just pop up out of nowhere and eat somebody…_

"Yep," whispered Lee, one eye squinted closed while the other peeped through a miniscule hole in the rock wall they were huddled against. "Think there's something there."

All members of the group froze, and Sasuke was pretty sure his heart skipped a beat. Fortunately, none of the others seemed to notice, too caught up in the adrenaline rush.

"Are…you sure?" asked Tenten with an excited tone, jostling Neji aside for a peer through one of the rock's tiny holes.

"Not yet, but wait for it…

Hardly daring to breathe, he and the others peeked through chinks in the rocks, otherwise remaining completely still.

"There," breathed Lee. "That's ours."

The whole group flinched in agitation as their view was suddenly blocked by a huge mass of gray. Gliding silently by their hiding place was an enormous, gray-and-white-speckled shark. Sasuke flinched as it turned and swam parallel to their rocky hiding place, almost close enough to feel the underwater "breeze" from its movements. It was flabby, unlike the sleeker sharks he'd heard stories of, and its tail seemed deformed and papery. But still, the restrained excitement of the others kept him from thinking it too easy a target.

"Sleeper shark," murmured Tenten, taking another glance through her hole. "About seven or eight feet, I'd say. They're pretty slow, but not to be underestimated if you're their target."

"Don't get near its mouth," advised Lee. "They suck their prey up and slice them to pieces with their teeth. If it gets your arm, you're dead."

All present shuddered in unison.

"So, Neji," muttered Kiba in a barely-audible whisper. "Plan?"

The pale-eyed boy was silent for a moment, unwilling to take his gaze off of the deadly fish swimming only a few feet from their hiding place. "…Lee, you're our fastest swimmer. You get out there and deliver the first strike. Tenten, you're our artillery. Kiba, you get in there once she's finished and deliver the final hit."

"What about Sakura's friend?" asked Lee when neither of the other two mentioned his being left out.

"He can…be backup."

Sasuke fumed silently as Lee cautiously glided out from behind their wall of rock, ears pricked and eyes peeled for any sign of danger.

"I'm going," he whispered back to the group, and in the next swish of his tail he was gone, leaving the other three with pounding hearts grouped back behind the safety of their wall.

"Th-this is great," Tenten tried to be optimistic. "We'll get all the glory when we get back, and…and everyone will know we won the hunt…"

The two genuine fish-boys nodded in agreement, leaving their out-of-the-loop companion to wonder against the situation what Sakura was doing right now…

"Tenten!" Lee's voiced called, "Get out here, this one is a worthy opponent!"

The girl grinned, and in a flash had vanished to aid Lee, leaving the three remaining boys tense in preparation. Sasuke snuck a glance at Kiba, and wasn't surprised to see the wild fish-boy with wide, excited eyes and a toothy grin as he waited his turn.

_This is crazy! What are we doing out here, trying to get ourselves killed?!_

Neji left after a summon from his teammates, and Kiba soon followed. Leaving their "Southerner" friend in an irritated mood from being excluded so obviously.

_This isn't fair. I'm just sitting here while they go have the fun…Dangerous fun, but it's probably still fun anyways…That's it. I don't care what they say. I'm not sitting behind this stupid boulder anymore._

Checking at least eight times for any possible danger, he carefully slid out from behind the rock barrier, ready at a moment's notice to retreat in case of any threats appearing. The water was dead silent, a fact that only unnerved him as the shelter was left further and further behind.

What had happened to the others?

"…Guys?" he called tentatively.

Silence, and then-

"Southerner! Get out of the way!"

In the space of mere moments, there was no thought, just action. Only after reacting in a split second did the images come flashing through Sasuke's mind.

He'd turned his head in reaction to the shout, and seen only flashing colors at first. Neji and Lee and the others had been rushing towards him, and Tenten's mouth had been open in her warning yell. Then, almost blurred from how heart-stoppingly close it was, had been that familiar mass of gray.

He'd seen the glint of bared, yellow teeth, and had responded in a flash.

Now his heart was pounding in his ears as his tail pumped as quickly as it could, his glance over his shoulder telling him the giant gray mass of sharp teeth followed close behind. So much for the information that this kind of shark was a slow swimmer.

_Crap! How do I get rid of this thing? I'm going to die if it catches me!_

Wait…Tenten had mentioned the sleeper shark was a bottom-feeder. That meant its body was used to crushing pressure and the icy coldness of the seafloor. It might not be able to handle the warmth of the surface water!

The shark followed undaunted as he turned his escape route into a skyrocketing ascent, the kelp-infested, rocky floor below seeming to fall away as the light overhead grew brighter…

The sound of churning water lessened, and he turned his head to see the shark slowing down considerably, its movements jerky and unsure. In the bright refracted sunlight, its darkness-adapted traits probably were going haywire.

His theory proved successful. With an almost vengeful toss of its snout, the enormous fish carefully turned, and began its return to its natural habitat. Only once its flabby gray tail had vanished from sight did he let out a held breath, observing how completely stupid and yet awesomely charged that whole experience had just been as he floated mere feet below the surface.

_Well, I didn't kill it, but Sakura's going to freak out once she hears-_

A shadow passed by overhead, and only too late did he react in surprise to the enormous _splash_ of something heavy hitting water only a few feet above him. His glance upwards to see what it was only let the overhead sunlight blind him for a second, but that second was all that was needed. The next thing he knew, something hard and biting had wrapped itself around him, growing ever-tighter against his breathless struggles as he was hauled upwards toward the surface.

The moment his wriggling form was yanked up out of the water, a single voice could be heard, and its words made his heart stop beating completely.

"Takeo! Takeo, look! We caught a _mermaid!_"

* * *

"Whoa, she's a fighter!"

"But she's so pretty…"

Several pairs of hands roughly yanked their catch up onto the slimy deck of a small fisherman's boat, their tones ecstatic at their find. Sasuke stopped struggling around in the net long enough to stare at his captors, whose grizzled, weatherworn faces immediately squinted at him in confusion.

"Hey, wait a minute…" said one fisher, "It's a _boy_ mermaid!"

"Acute observation," said another, his eyes glued to their victim's thrashing tail. "A really _pretty_ boy mermaid…I had no idea a boy could be so beautiful…"

"_Let me go!_" Sasuke meant to shout, but his voice came out as a long whine and a squeaking click, something like a dolphin call. Ignoring the fishers' dumbfounded expressions, he tried again.

"Release me," he growled, pushing at the net with his webbed fingers. "Or I'll sink this pathetic vessel of yours."

"Hey," said the first one, elbowing the other with a pallid face, "Maybe…maybe we should listen to him, you know? Them's fish folk…they got magic powers."

"_Listen_?" chuckled the third, reaching through the net to pet his captive's damp hair. "This here little one's gonna make us a _fortune_."

Sasuke snarled angrily, twisting in the tangles of salty rope. "I'll call my brothers and sisters," he threatened. "They'll tip over this boat and _sink_ it."

"And…and if we let you go?" stammered the cautious one.

"I'll…grant you three wishes," he answered, the first thing that came into his mind.

"Not so fast, fish boy," said the loud one, probably the leader. "Wishes, you say? How about we wish first, then let you go?"

"No," he answered, desperately searching for another escape plan. "The sea won't listen to any good requests if I'm not in it. Only _bad_ ones, like _sinking_ you."

"Then…" the man turned and whispered to his two companions, who grinned unnervingly. They lifted the net with their captive in it and tied the ends together, creating a rope-mesh sack with no opening. Keeping a quick hold on the end of the rope, they heaved Sasuke over the side and into the water.

_Clever_, he thought, choking up seawater as his gills opened. He could only squirm helplessly in the net-cage as it bumped the side of the boat. _Very clever…_

"How 'bout them wishes, fish boy?" called the loud, fat fisher. "You can grant 'em, can't you?"

"What-" he coughed, "What do you want?"

"A mountain of gold!" shouted the leader, silencing the other two with a thump on their backs. "Make it happen!"

He nodded, pretending to whisper some magic spell as he dipped his head under the water. In reality, he was shouting as loudly as possible in hopes that the others would hear and come to his aid.

"Neji! Tenten! Lee, Kiba! Help!"

A jerk on the rope, and he was forced to come back up again.

"S-so it shall be," he called up to his captors, trying to sound mystical. "What is your second wish?"

The cautious fisher stepped forward. "Uh…well…I'd like a new wife, please. My old one's a bit naggy and cranky…And make her about…twenty-five. And gorgeous."

Again he forced the net's bottom down into the dark water, hollering frantically through the foaming water before being pulled up again.

"I want a big ol' house in the countryside," said the third. "And no stinkin' landlord to make me pay rent."

This time he was yanked up much sooner than the other two, the loud fisher sneering at him as he struggled.

"Thought you could escape down there?" he chuckled evilly. "No deal."

Sasuke, having gained sudden inspiration, sighed in his prison, forming a stream of the simple hand motions used to call up land chakra. "You guys are really ticking me off. I'm going to have to punish you."

"Hey!" shouted the cautious one, pointing, "Hey, he's-!"

The fishers all shrieked as his mouth-blown fireball smashed into the side of the boat, their hands dropping the rope and allowing the net to splash back into the water. He heard them yelling at each other to put out the now-raging fire as he managed to untangle one of the net's vital knots.

He twisted underwater, waving the useless ropes away before wriggling free, glancing back at the flickering orange lights in the beat above him before smirking and slipping down beneath the churning waters. Maybe being a former human wasn't such a disadvantage after all.

* * *

Wow. Just...wow. I fail beyond the lowest depths of failure at updating.

You all may now throw tomatoes at me.


End file.
